The Head of the Household Exhorted to the Duty of Family Worship (1)

Every portion of what has preceded has tended to the single point of inducing the reader to maintain the worship of God in his house; but it is desirable to make the appeal even more closely, and as it were, personally, to the heart and conscience. Laying aside therefore, all more ceremonious modes of approach, I would respectfully and affectionately address myself to the individual professor of religion.

You are, by Providence, set at the head of a family to support it, instruct it, guard it, and in every way care for its temporal and eternal good. We offer to you a simple means of contributing to the greatest of these objects; and we have, at some length, dwelt upon its excellencies and fruits. Our plea is for those whom you love the best, for your own flesh and blood. No human language can well go beyond the importance of the domestic relation. On this point you require no prompting. When you return from the toils and distractions of the day and sit at home amidst the little quiet circle, you feel that you are among your chief wealth. This is your treasure. The law makes it your castle, and religion may make it your sanctuary. As your eye rests on the wife of your bosom, and the pledges of your mutual love, you silently give thanks to God, and sometimes your heart overflows in earnest wishes for the good of each beloved object. Withhold not a single defense or ornament from that Christian home which is already the source of so many virtues and enjoyments.

If you would “preserve these sweets,” connect them with heaven. Have you no desire to honor God in the midst of these His favors? Or do you see no seemliness in recognizing the religion of Christ in your family capacity? Even supposing that there were no injunction of such a service as this, one might expect it to grow up spontaneously in Christian households. Prayer is a duty of natural religion. The Mohammedan, wherever he journeys, prays to God five times a day at his stated hours. The very heathen, in their families, call on their gods, “which are yet no gods” (Jer. 2:11). Shall a Christian house be void of all tokens of its relation to God? One might claim of you as a follower of the Redeemer, to hold forth some such sign, that as for you and your house, you fear the LORD (Joshua 24:15). If God had given no indications of His good pleasure in this ordinance, it is one of so great value and blessedness that we might all reasonably join in asking it at His hands as a special boon. But He gives it to us freely; and yet the heavenly gift is spurned by thousands! Suppose it were revealed to us that we were forbidden to worship God in our families. Though all other means should remain undiminished, it would be a fearful interdict, a portentous curfew to our domestic fires. The parent and the child could no longer press around the feet of divine mercy, clinging the more closely because the rest of the world is shut out. Yet multitudes deny themselves all this blessing of their own free choice; and parents and children grow up and live and separate and appear in judgment without having ever met, even once, in an act of common household supplication. It is amazing, and all but incredible, that any man who loves Christ should be willing to preside over a family in which, from year to year, there is nothing to signalize it as belonging to the Lord.

Oh, Christian parent, “suffer the word of exhortation!” Be persuaded not to deny yourself a service which will heighten all your comforts. The principle is undoubted, that we have tenfold pleasure in that which we enjoy in company with those whom we love. That is not a father’s heart which does not experience it every day. We realize it in our common meals, our recreations, our readings, our excursions, our visits; why should you not realize it in your religion? Family worship is a coming to God, not singly, but hand-in-hand with your children and family; and from this its peculiar aspect, it has delights and advantages which are all its own.

The family, as such, has its wants, dangers, sorrows, and sins, which it is, therefore, reasonable to lay before God in a special devotion. No human community stands out from the mass in such substantive and prominent individuality; the circle which bounds it is clear, and sharply marked, and has been described by the hand of God Himself. There is a community of interest: no persons on earth are so much bound together. Nothing can befall anyone without reaching the whole circle. You are invited to present your household as a household before the infinite Giver of all good. Be assured He will make a difference between those who fear Him, and those who fear Him not. It was with a dreadful reference to this very family tie, that God said, “Them that honour Me I will honour, and they that despise Me shall be lightly esteemed” (1 Sam. 2:30). Your habitation will be more safe and its inmates more prosperous by reason of God’s answer to the petitions which you put up together.

Dr. James W. Alexander (1804-1859), eldest son of the renowned Archibald Alexander, wrote many volumes on practical Christian Themes, including Plain Words to a Young Communicant (1854) and Thoughts on Preaching (1864). This article is drawn from his Thoughts on Family Worship (1847).

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